Wow. I guess I never really understood “shop till you drop†until today. We left the hotel at around 10:00 am, had some breakfast and then headed to shopping. It is now 9:48 pm and we just returned after dinner. During that entire time, we were shopping for apartment stuff. The day was somewhat soured by Visa issues, but I’ll talk about that later.
We first headed down to the port of Nagoya to a place called “Furniture Dome.†We had been there two weeks prior and had an idea what to look for. I have no idea why it is called “Furniture Domeâ€, but it is. We honed in on a table we had seen before and kind of committed to the first purchase of the day – the dining room table and chairs. Neither of us really liked the chairs – they are faux cream leather on brown wood. However, we couldn’t really find another reasonably priced set of chairs that we liked. Tomo asked if we could remove the order later if we found other chairs. We could. So the dining room was relatively easy.
Next, it was time to choose a bed. My bedroom is really small, only 6 jo, 9.2 sq m, or 99 square feet. It is basically 9 ft x 10.4 ft (don’t do the math because it doesn’t added up to 99 square feet so I guess it is even smaller). That doesn’t leave a lot of room. On a previous trip to Furniture Dome, we had sort of narrowed down the beds too. So we went back to what we liked before and it was fine. A little low, compared to American beds but that’s OK. It is Japan after all. After that it got really complicated.
What SIZE is the right size for me? Wide, double wide? Regular? Long? The difference between wide and double wide came pretty quickly. A wide was just too small. A double wide is a little smaller than a queen. But then what about long versus regular? I’m taller than the average Japanese, so we though long would be more appropriate. A typical Japanese double wide mattress is 152 x 195 cm (60 x 77 in). But then we started thinking a long at 210 cm (83 in) would be more appropriate. As we started looking for sheets and mattress pads, etc, we quickly discovered that a long bed would be troublesome. A typical US queen bed is 60 in x 80 in. Unfortunately, I just discovered that. In the end I chose a regular mattress instead of a long. I think that will be OK … although I may end up with my feet just hanging over the end. In general though, I think I will be able to use queen sheets from the States without a lot of problem.
What mattress is right? Of course, like any furniture store, the mattress selection goes from super-cheap to incredibly expensive. They had a “bed lab†in the store. So we tried a bunch of different mattresses. I had settled on one and then my apple cart was upset when the mattress specialist noted that the mattress I had chosen was all urethane and didn’t breathe and may be very hot in the summer. Oh. I chose instead a pocket coil mattress that turns out to be a Simmons Beautyrest Mattress! Go figure. Well, at least I paid top dollar. My double wide regular bed frame is 151 x 200 x 87 cm. I did save $300 by being regular.
Every bed needs pillows, sheets, a duvet, and a mattress pad, right? The dollars just keep stacking up. What about a nightstand? My budget was beginning to be a little tested. I was unable to find a suitable mattress pad. I may just bring that from the States. And the sheets seemed more like sandpaper, so I’m anticipating a purchase from the States for those as well. The size is close enough to a queen that it should be OK. I had a wide range of duvet choices. Ranging from Chinese to Hungarian, to Polish. I believe I chose Hungarian in the end. I liked the duvet because it came with snaps to have a winter version and a summer version (two verses one thickness, winter / summer). I chose Hungarian … why not? Again, middle of the road. Throw in a couple of pillows and you’ve dropped some serious coinage. I needed a small nightstand as well.
While at Furniture Dome, I decided to look at TV stands, or “boards†as they are called here. I found one that was sort of modern / sophisticated. The more I can consolidate my purchases, the better. From Furniture Dome, the tally is dining room table, chairs (to be removed later), bed frame, mattress, pillows, summer/winter duvet (queen size), night stand, and a TV board.
Now let the paying pains begin. I have had problems with my credit card, so every day I was withdrawing $500 from my LA account. That is, when they allowed me to and didn’t but a block on my transactions. So far I have removed about $4500. The cash was my insurance in case I had credit card problems. What if I didn’t? I would have been stuck with $4300 cash? I didn’t worry about that. Going to shopping today, I have $4300 in cash with me. WHAT AM I THINKING? Well, this is Japan, it should be fine.
There’s so much to tell but I am so tired. I’ve got to sleep. Be patient, more will come. I have been separated from all my cash, but in a controlled manner! Stay tuned for more tomorrow I hope.
